Grains, heavy metals, food intolerance, & Celiac - what to do next...

My last blog post was about GMOs and touched on how it might not be the new genetic material causing disease, but rather our current farming practices - high pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide toxic coating our food and leaving soils depleted of any nutrients.   Corn, soy, and canola are the most sprayed, but I also want to touch on the rest of our grains. 

Why are grain food intolerance's on the rise?

The answer to this again is multi-fold, but I am again going to suggest it is associated with our current chemical dependent farming practices.   I once attended a scientific lecture given by a researcher from Queens university discussing how durum wheat was bio accumulating the heavy metal cadmium instead of calcium.  Another scientific journal I just read showed that if a plant was provided with aluminum and magnesium in the soil it will take up aluminum.  Our minerals are competing with heavy metals for uptake into our plants and accumulating in the seeds.  This is alarming as heavy metals have a similar shape, charge, and properties as our much needed minerals, particularly calcium and magnesium, and plants cannot tell the different.!  No doubt this is why all rice is now found to be contaminated with arsenic and our wheat contaminated with cadmium.   
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So no more bread?

Wheat is  another topic that has entire books dedicated to it, Wheat Belly is just one that comes to mind.  Some people have to avoid it altogether, some can only handle it every once in a while, and some cannot eat north american wheat, but are fine when they go to Italy.  Why so much discrepancy? 
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9 Reasons to be weary about eating wheat: ​

• 1.  Based on the soils wheat was grown in will dictate how much heavy metal it has accumulated.
• 2. The germ is removed in most wheat and as such the B vitamins,  minerals, and nutrients have being removed  leaving it nutrient devoid so much so that it needs to be fortified.
• 3. It has being shown to increase a protein called zonulin, which deposits between the walls of the cells in out gut leaving spaces and allowing proteins to move into the blood stream (a condition called leaky gut, which increases ones risk for an autoimmune condition) and is associated with a larger waist circumference and obesity.
• 4.  It can spike blood sugar levels having a glycemic index the same as glucose.
• 5.  Wheat grains can sit in the bin for years before it being sold, increasing risk for contamination to mold and where it is heated in summer months causing the fats in the seed to become rancid. 
• 6.  Wheat is no longer left to rise the way it used to be traditionally.  Now potassium bromate is added to flour in the US to increase its ability to rise quickly, but bromate has being linked to cancer.
• 8. We still do not know the effects of GMO wheat and everyone may respond differently to its effects - we still do not know. ​
• 9.  The Canadian Food Guide was heavily influenced by agriculture, which put more stress and influence on eating grains.  

​NOTE:  wheat, corn, & soy are some of the most heavily sprayed crops, so if you are having symptoms to wheat you may also want to pay attention to non-organic corn and soy as you may also be reactive to them and likewise for any heavily sprayed and processed grain.  
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Signs & symptoms you may have a grain intolerance:

• Diarrhea
• Gas
• Bloating and Cramping
• Constipation
• Stomach Pain
• Nausea and Vomiting
• Acid Reflux (GERD)
• Brain Fog
• Fatigue
• Anemia
• Joint and Bone Pain (arthritis)
• Skin Rashes
• Headaches and Migraines​
• Unexplained Weight Loss or Gain​​

​What testing is available? 

Hair Nutrient Analysis: 
My first recommendation would be to do a hair nutrient analysis.   This involves measuring minerals and heavy metal content in the hair shaft, representative of the past 3 months.   It is a simple test involving cutting new hair growth (the 3 cm closest to the scalp or using pubic hair) and sending it off to the lab for analysis.  See an example of what the test looks like here.  This gives a great starting point to determine if one is getting enough minerals where remember humans are like plants and if there are more heavy metals compared to minerals we will take them up as well. 

Food allergy testing:
​Secondly I would run a food allergy test to determine if one is reactive to any of these grains.  It is a simple blood test and can be done in office where results generally come back within a week or two.  See an example report here.

Celiac testing:
Next, based on severity of symptoms and family history I would recommend doing a Celiac test.,  Some Doctors say only 1% of the population is suspected to have celiac, which I suspect is higher; however, this is 1/100 so in the downtown core of Vancouver alone over 6000 people are suspected to have celiac.  The reason I mentioned that I suspect this to be even higher is because a convention lab test measures for the IgA tissue transglutaminase antigen; however,  1/500 in Canada are suspected to have an IgA deficiency and as such will be misdiagnosed as not having celiac when they actually do; this equates to an extra 1000 people in downtown Vancouver.  Thus, it is good to test for an IgA deficiency along with both IgA and IgG gluten sensitivities.  

​Note: ~50% of people with celiac disease will not show any symptoms, but will still be suffering as they are not absorbing their nutrients.  Eventually years down the road symptoms will develop, particularly fatigue. 
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Additional thoughts:

Want a cheaper way, although much more difficult, to determine if you have an intolerance to different grains?  Simply get rid of grains all together for a few weeks and see how you feel.  If you still feel lousy then lets look at a different food, or at your toxic load, especially heavy metals.  However, if you are feeling better then slowly bring back each grain one at a time and monitor your symptoms - you are your best doctor and it may be a matter of listening to your body more closely. 
Keep in mind I am not recommending to never eat grains - grains are a great source of fiber, minerals, and vitamins when grown in healthy soils.  So, try to buy organic and try "safe" grains, such as quinoa, buckwheat, and millet - these are grains I hear less complaints about and come up much less on food allergy tests and they are actually quite delicious! 

it is also a good idea to flood the body with a high quality multivitamin in the hopes that your body preferentially takes up the minerals instead of the heavy metals found in food.   Binders can be useful as well, but this is a whole other conversation / blog post on how to deal with heavy metals.   
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References:

Magnesium deficiency in plants: An urgent problem

Heavy metals in wheat grain: Assessment of potential health risk for inhabitants in Kunshan, Chinahttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969708007213

What Is It? Wednesday: Bromated and Bleached Flour

Higher Levels of Serum Zonulin May Rather Be Associated with Increased Risk of Obesity and Hyperlipidemia, Than with Gastrointestinal Symptoms or Disease Manifestations

Immunoglobulin A Deficiency